Abstract

Background: Students of higher educational institution are at higher risk of substance abuse. Currently, substance abuse is one of the most burning public health problems in Ethiopia. Although it has been known that this public health problem is a pressing issue, the real extent and magnitude of drug abuse is not yet properly explored. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the overall prevalence of substance abuse among students and factors associated with it. Simple random sampling technique was conducted to select 423 students from the list of students name in their respective batch after stratifying them based on year of study. A pretested semi structured anonymous questionnaire was used to collect data, which was entered and cleaned using Epi Data version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 statistical package. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were performed to examine the prevalence and predictors of substance abuse. CAGE-AID was used to measure substance abuse. Results: The overall prevalence of substance abuse was 14.1 %. The commonly abused substances were alcohol 13.4 %, khat 7.8 %, and cigarette 5.4 %. Sex [AOR, 95% CI; 3.550 (1.451, 8.685)], peer pressure [AOR, 95% CI 3.405 (1.047, 11.076)], availability of the drugs [AOR, 95% CI 3.394 (1.677, 6.868)],family drug use[AOR, 95% CI; 2.698 (1.337, 5.443)], personal pleasure [AOR, 95% CI 3.346 (1.315, 8.512] and academic dissatisfaction [AOR, 95% CI 2.739(1.253, 5.985)] were found to be significantly associated with students to abuse substances